Greg Milam

US Correspondent

No-one should be surprised that the National Rifle Association doesn't want new gun restrictions – but its call for armed guards in schools has shocked many in a country still in mourning over Sandy Hook.

The NRA's executive vice president Wayne LaPierre is one of the most powerful lobbying voices in America and a fierce defender of the right to bear arms.

But his defiance, in the face of a wave of public anguish over the cost of America's gun culture, was breathtaking.

This first public appearance, a week to the day after Newtown, was billed as the NRA's chance to offer its "meaningful contribution" to the debate.

A news conference at which no questions were taken seems instead to have increased the rancour and entrenched positions further.

Mr LaPierre's message is a familiar one from the gun lobby: that killers target gun-free zones. So let people carry guns there and they will be able to defend themselves.

The argument that if the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary had been armed more children would have survived has been advanced by plenty of people since last Friday.

But mass shootings don't only happen in schools. Should armed guards be placed at the door of every factory, restaurant, place of worship and cinema? Does that not just take America back to the days of the Wild West?

The NRA spent a lot of time blaming the media for ignoring what it sees as one of the major causes of mass shootings.

But the role of movies and violent video games was already the subject of scrutiny post-Newtown. It is not clear why it was necessary for the NRA to play a clip of a particularly gruesome video game called Kindergarten Killer.

The difference with the entertainment industry is that people within it have recognised there are questions to answer.

Which is what we didn't get from a group which represents 4.3 million gun owners - any acknowledgement that those guns could be even partly responsible for gun violence.

Some evidence of self-examination would have been welcome - the "self-reflection" President Obama called for. But we got nothing of the sort.

Blaming everyone else - whoever is doing it - is unlikely to bring America any answers.